The Foreign Service Journal, March 2009

38 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 0 9 Of course, the reverse is not true: When an FSO leaves his or her family behind at post to go to Iraq, they get to re- main in their house. While that policy is certainly gener- ous, many posts then face severe housing problems because they still have to find quarters for the employee who will be covering the vacancy. My husband and I were willing to have him serve in Baghdad as a way of doing our part. We did not, however, expect that our sacrifice would cause increased hardship for the two of us left behind. I hate to sound like a com- plainer, but it astonishes me that the State Department still apparently believes that most Foreign Service families consist of an FSO plus an at-home spouse. Name withheld by request A M IXED B LESSING I have been in Iraq as leader of Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team-2 since March 2008 and will depart this month. My wife, Christina, is deputy coordinator of the cultural affairs officer course at FSI. Like most people, I came to Iraq with several goals — some professional, some personal. My most important personal goal was to maintain the connection to my wife and four kids. I think I have succeeded, but barely; and I (re)learned a few things along the way. First and most important, it’s harder for the stay-behind F O C U S L IFE I S A H OOCH Susan Malcik was the political- economic section Office Manage- ment Specialist in Kabul from December 2003 to February 2005. A self-taught painter who works in oil and acrylics, she has exhibited her work in many group shows, in- cluding two international biennials: Grafolies in Abidjan in 1993 and, a year earlier, DAK ART ’92 at the Museum of African Art in Dakar. “In My Hooch” (acrylic on can- vas paper, 2003) is an interior scene of Malcik’s Kabul home a few days after she moved in. At that time, everyone lived in two-unit hooches surrounding the chancery. Specially outfitted shipping containers, each unit was the width of a twin bed and 18 feet long, with a separate shower room and toilet (the ambassador had a “triple-wide”). The compound was dusty, noisy and lit at night by klieg lights on towers because of the 24/7 construction of the new chancery and apartment buildings. After a long day’s work, dinner in the Marines’ mess hall was often followed by a stroll around the compound, dropping in at various campfires for a beer or a sing- along. Then it was off to bed. Malcik reports that she quickly came to ap- preciate the comfort and privacy of Hooch E-33. She designed “Life Is a Hooch” in 2005 for T-shirts. It depicts the com- munity of structures that were built around the embassy in that era.